Category Archives: Advocacy

The Government Shutdown from an Archives Point of View

Posted on October 14, 2013 by | 3 comments

In upcoming Off the Record blog posts I will post about my speech and attendance at the Cultural Heritage Symposium that took place at the Library of Congress, my trip to Ohio including presentations at the Society of Ohio Archivists conference and at Miami University and my interactions with members of the Association of Research Librarians at their recent conference. Continue reading →

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Posted in Advocacy, Member Needs

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Help New Orleans renew and rebuild!

Posted on July 17, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Colleen McFarland, the indefatigable vice-chair/chair-elect of SAA’s Archivists of Religious Collections Section, has once again taken the lead on organizing not one, but FIVE, service projects so that archivists attending the Annual Meeting in NOLA can “give back” to the city. Can you fit one of the projects into your busy schedule on Tuesday August 13th or Wednesday the 14th? Here’s more information from Colleen. –Jackie

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Posted in Advocacy, Annual Meeting, Disaster recovery

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Live webcast on the Boston College oral histories controversy

Posted on July 15, 2013 by | 1 comment

Today’s post is from Beth Kaplan, SAA Council liaison to the Oral History Section, about a special event they’re hosting  this Wednesday, July 17, 2013 @ 2pm Eastern time. I’ll be really interested in how this goes, since SAA’s Council has encouraged discussion across the archival community about the issues raised by the controversy surrounding the Boston College oral histories with former members of the Irish Republican Army. -Jackie

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Posted in Advocacy

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They found it!! Now help us spread the word …

Posted on April 18, 2013 by | 2 comments

It’s guest blogger day again here at OTR as Teresa Brinati, SAA’s dynamic,  ever-enthusiastic Director of Publishing, reminds us that voting is  open until May 15th for the I Found it in the Archives! contest. Hey, and next year how about making sure at least one entry goes in from your archives? It’s great public relations. Your boss will love it! 🙂

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Posted in Advocacy

Who found what? Find out here …

Posted on April 1, 2013 by | 2 comments

I know, I know … I pestered you only two weeks ago about voting in the SAA election (consider this a friendly reminder), and now I’m back. I just voted in the “I found it in the archives!” competition, and you should too.

It took less than ten minutes to read through the five (only five? really?) entries. Each little essay is less than 500 words (or so) long. They’re fun to read. I had an immediate favorite. Vote cast. Boom. On to the next thing on the to-do list. Continue reading →

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Posted in Advocacy

Should a legal right to “archival privilege” be established?

Posted on February 14, 2013 by | 14 comments

Egad, it’s been way too long since the last OTR post! I’ll assign fault to the rather substantial work involved in prepping for and cleaning up after (so to speak) an SAA Council meeting and my final push to publish a major research report (forgive the plug for my terrific day job, but consider taking a look!).

You may have seen SAA’s discussion statement about the Belfast Project at Boston College that has drawn lots of concern from archivists and historians over the past two years. The Oral History Section also has posted a lot of useful information. Today we hear from Frank Boles, SAA past president and chair of our Government Affairs Working Group, who led the work to develop our statement. He and his merry band of GAWGers always do excellent research and thinking before they send a document to Council, and this one is no exception.

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Posted in Advocacy

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Those amazing Georgia activists keep fighting!

Posted on January 16, 2013 by | Leave a comment

It’s great to see that the historians, genealogists, archivists, librarians, and other citizens of Georgia who care about the Georgia Archives (i.e., the state archives) are continuing to fight for increased funding and a sane transfer of responsibility from the Secretary of State to the University System of Georgia. The Clayton News Daily has a good article today about the group of advocates who greeted legislators on the first day of their new session with placards and chants and energy. Continue reading →

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Posted in Advocacy, Georgia State Archives

Hanging Together

Posted on November 13, 2012 by | 17 comments

A provocative new guest blogger joins the Off the Record roster today. The SAA Council was discussing last Friday’s tweetfest questioning whether the new SAA/NARA publication Resources for Volunteer Programs in Archives inappropriately advocates for the use of unpaid workers, and Terry Baxter leapt into the fray and answered my call for a blog post in response.

He expresses his opinion in typical unfettered Beaver Archivist fashion  (matching the level of passion used by last week’s tweeters). The faint of heart may be taken aback just a bit. Gird your loins, read on, and then build the comment thread.

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Posted in Advocacy, Member Satisfaction

The State Archives crisis in Georgia

Posted on September 14, 2012 by | 2 comments

Beginning yesterday, immediately after the Georgia Secretary of State announced the forthcoming closure of the State Archives to public access, Twitter and other channels have been afire with chat about the issue. Several tweeters have asked whether SAA will be preparing a response, and the answer is a very loud YES. Our Government Affairs Working Group is working on this now under the able leadership of Frank Boles . Watch this space and the usual SAA channels.

In the meantime, I’ll mention two ways in which you may choose to participate in the archival community’s response: You can sign the petition, and you can “like” Georgians Against Closing State Archives (whether or not you live in Georgia) on Facebook.

Rise up for archives!

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Posted in Advocacy, Georgia State Archives